Radakovich’s exit shows disparity between Tech, Georgia
The financial issues that Dan Radakovich dealt with at Tech won't be an issue at Clemson. (AP photo)
It’s almost always about money. There may be other factors in changing jobs: Going back home, returning to an alma mater, or, as Dan Radakovich said Tuesday, having the desire to “get into a collegiate environment. I hadn’t had the opportunity to be in a pure college town.”
A nice sentiment. But primarily it’s still about the money, either what one can make or one can spend.
When Radakovich resigned from the athletic director’s job at Georgia Tech for the same position at Clemson, it said as much about his former employer than his new one. Radakovich won’t have to sell a ticket or plead with donors at Clemson, which is what he had to do at Tech. The pressure for victories and the chase for dollars is greater than ever in college athletes – too great, actually, but that’s a topic for another column – and right now Tech just isn’t all that attractive.
Radakovich won’t say that. But he’ll use words like “challenges” and “difficulties.” He was weary of trying to get people to “jump off the connector” in hopes he could alter their perceptions of what the metro campus looked like. He won’t criticize Tech’s high academic requirements or limited number of majors, but he’ll amplify on the difficulty coaches have to convince recruits that the school can provide an “enriching” experience.
That’s why he was so driven to improve and add facilities. “Sometimes they [recruits] make their decision first with their eyes,” he said.
Here’s the problem: While Radakovich denies also that the Tech AD position is a “steppingstone” job, relative to others in major college athletics, that’s basically what he just affirmed by leaving one ACC job for another, just two hours up the interstate. He is close with Clemson’s retiring AD, Terry Don Phillips, and had coveted the impending vacancy for several months.
Greg McGarity knows what drives Radakovich and what wears on him (or any athletic director). (Curtis Compton/AJC)
None of this bodes well for the perception of Tech on the college sports landscape, and we haven’t addressed the ever-present shadow cast by the beast in Athens. Georgia and Georgia Tech are different campuses with different missions. But they’re rival programs in close proximity of each other. The financial situations at the two athletic departments are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
According to the Equity in Athletics database, which tracks budgets of every collegiate athletic program, Tech’s sports teams had total revenues of $46,910,364 for the one-year period ending June 30, 2012. Georgia was nearly double that at $91,670,613.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said he wasn’t surprised by Radakovich’s exit. The two have known each other for years and speak often. He knows what drives the man. “When he was at American University, he missed the bright lights of big-time college athletics,” McGarity said.
He also knows what can wear down an athletic director.
“The financial challenges to run a college athletic program are much more difficult at some institutions than others,” McGarity said. “When you have a strong fan base and full stadiums and when you have a tremendous level of support, it makes your job easier from a fundraising standpoint. Financial circumstances can be taxing mentally. You’re always worrying about where the next dollar will come from. It wears on athletic directors just as it wears on anyone. There’s a constant pressure.”
Radakovich was back in his Edge Athletic Center office Tuesday for some desk cleanout. Asked about the challenges of running athletics at the Institute, he didn’t hesitate: “Always looking at ways to get people to consistently come to the stadium and the venues. When we’re winning, attendance is good. When we’re OK, attendance is OK. When we’re not winning, attendance falls. The challenge is to create a bigger core. We tried a lot of things to get that to happen.”
Some have characterized Radakovich’s decision to leave as “jumping ship.” That’s overstatement. Tech isn’t in financial straits. The football team, while struggling, isn’t devastated. But his departure is a reality check for the school.
Radakovich tries to minimize Georgia comparisons, saying, “The comparisons aren’t fair because the schools aren’t chartered the same, and they don’t have the same level of resources athletically. … Georgia has been up the street for the last 100 years. It’s a factor. It’s something that you have to manage each and every day. But it doesn’t make the list of why we do what we do.”
He was still saying “we” Tuesday. A day earlier, he was putting on a bright orange sports jacket at a news conference. “We” is past tense. And the jacket he put on Monday might as well have been green.
By Jeff Schultz
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517 comments Add your comment
CrimeDog
October 31st, 2012
7:38 am
At least the crimes around GT campus are committed by non-students.
The UGA football team single-handedly raises the Athens Crime Rate by 2% every year.
Tech needs to recruit more thugs and criminals to compete with The Cesspool of the South…..
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
7:46 am
George Stein October 30th, 2012 2:49 pm
“We want to beat them because we know it’s harder at Tech, and that’s probably one of the reasons many of us chose to attend there.”
______________________________________________________
George Stein, sir, you’ve accomplished that 1-time in the now 12 years Mark Richt has been our coach, sir. If being harder is judged by your entire football team flunking-out and on NCAA Probation while unable to win a single bowl game anymore either with no one watching them, then congratulations – you’ve accomplished that with aplomb.
TTT
October 31st, 2012
7:49 am
@ Thomas Brown
Why are you so worked up? You come across as shrill and hysterical.
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
7:51 am
Oh, I get it. It’s ok for you to say whatever you want. Just no replies from me ?
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
8:17 am
GTBob October 30th, 2012 3:25 pm
_______________________________________________
“What exactly does Athens offer that Atlanta doesn’t offer?”
_______________________________________________
It’s not Atlanta GTBoob, it’s the college, where it is in the city, how your campus is engineered with an unsafe football stadium and how it is set down on your so-called “campus” so that when someone drives by, you can’t even tell where Georgie tek’s campus really is. How there are no women on the campus for an enriched college experience, and that the entire purpose of an education is not some limited area of study but a broad base of experience with knowledge in many facets of education. The purpose of a degree is not so much to teach you something, but to widen your knowledge and awareness of the world around you; so that as you go through life – you will not act like you are so smart while having as your motto obviously a just dumb and Poor Sportsmanship : To Hell with Georgia, like my Daddy used to do. That alone is the basis of your Poor Sportsmanship. All anyone ever has to do is to read any single one of your posts to determine they’re all alike : Georgie tek is hard because you FLUNK-OUT your entire football team, and always have. It’s a disgrace to have that as your motto : To Hell with Georgia like my Daddy used to do. Your children do not go to Georgie tek. They find schools who offer courses in all areas of life where they can live an enriched college experience, and learn something – not contribute to how hard Georgie tek is by FLUNKING-OUT.
Then, we come on this blog and everyone learns we are all – well – just wrong and you really are the height of proficiency as the # 36 national university, adjust your glasses here now, ok ? Just like you were # 1 Harvard, instead.
You ain’t no Harvard. I’ve got news for you, and no one runs around bragging they’re # 36 at nothing.
And spare me your BS about engineering degrees we now offer too, which NONE of your football players take when what we’re in here talking about is football and your football program is on NCAA Probation and loses to teams who lost themselves to McNeese State college and lost themselves to Louisiana Monroe, but beat Georgie tek again this 2012 season with no one watching them as they all flunk-out again so you can brag how hard Georgie tek is.
You act so high and mighty, yet cannot address a single point Dan Radakovich made to you all as a parting shot out the door – like the latest NCAA Graduation Rate Reports just reported this week was the Final Straw.
AthensTech
October 31st, 2012
8:25 am
If Tech does not address the academic issues the football program will decline rapidly. If it does address those issues it will be a top 25 program every year and you could not build a stadium big enough.
Lamont
October 31st, 2012
8:29 am
tech athletics are in shambles-it is true. So many comments blame CPJ or DRad. No one seems to be too concerned about a team who in my opinion have lain down on their coaches for whatever reason. Though Tech gets fewer 5 star athletes than the hated dawgs-these overblown studs can be in the long run a discipline problem and have reached their terminal velocity in achievement. The only thing that any athlete cannot be coached up to is 4-2/4-3 speed. But quickness agility and meaness and focus on every play can be achieved with proper coaching and demand for perfection. I personally think that we cannot get a better coach than Johnson and regret seeing the AD leave. he probably just got sick of the constant whining and bitiching of the Tech so called fans. I pull for Tech no matter what-they are my team and i get excited everytimne I see them taking the field. It has been a love affair for me sinse the 1950’s. As bad as i hate to admit it, this year’s team has laid down-just not mean enough and lack the drive to beat a good opponent. they just don’t have each other’s back and that is the bottom line. One has to look no further than Boise State to see 2 and 3 star calibre athletes excell at the game because of their commitment to the little things. And they will not be pushed around-just think of their play against the Ugly Dawgs last year.
Pitbull
October 31st, 2012
8:34 am
The problem at Tech is the character of its people.
They think they are better than everyone else and act like it and talk like it and treat others like it.
No one wants to associate with people like that so they don’t go to their games and don’t support their teams.
In fact they root against them. People like to see arrogant people who feel entitled lose.
Its in the character of the institutionm, the students, the grads, and the alumni in general.
Look at how Tech posters refer to UGA alum and fans and Georgians in general. That alienates the populace from the Tech program.
So things will never change until the Tech character changes and it never will because it can’t and won’t.
I hope it won’t because Tech is Tech’s worst enemy and will always keep Tech down, Tech people turn a blind eye because they do not want to see it.
So Tech will always be a bottom feeder in the FBS. Get used to it.
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
8:36 am
Yes. They’ve played us twice and like you say finally won last season. We weren’t ready last season for them. We were ready last weekend, however, for # 2 Florida.
old dog
October 31st, 2012
8:42 am
Lamont,
You are right about Boise State whoopin’ up on us last year, which leads into this. My Tech friends have been making excuses long enough. The talent level is down because no REAL QB will come to Tech and be a human sacrifice in that system. The only teams using it now are those w/o enough talent to do otherwise….it is gimmicky and fools people for a short while. Eventually, they figure it out, and there you are with lesser athletes in a poorer system. While everybody tries to come up with excuses, I have an idea: hire a good coach!! CPJ is a good man, and was brought there for a good reason. However, as opposed tp the academic excuses, he just is not a top-notch recruiter. This is pretty much well known now (and, by the way, is proven too.) You think a Spurrier or Saban wouldn’t win there? I know that ain’t gonna happen, but pony-up and bring in a stud……Kirby Smart or somebody. Then, amazingly, all the B.S. will fly out the window and Tech football will be relevant again. This will be good for the state of Georgia.
The Former A.D. known as Damon Evans
October 31st, 2012
8:52 am
Psst….Tech….
I am rested and ready.
Dabo
October 31st, 2012
8:53 am
WE RAID THIS STATE!
SECGRAD
October 31st, 2012
8:59 am
The real reason he left for Clemson is fear for his personal safety. With Tech’s location in the middle of a ghetto, who would ever want to go there. Read the metro section of the paper.and there are stories about armed robberies, car jackings, assaults and muggings. There was recently a dorm lock down for the students safety. Ghetto Yech is the arm pit of Atlants. Clemson is a beautiful college town. That was not a difficult choice to make!
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
9:02 am
They think they are better than everyone else and act like it and talk like it and treat others like it. No one wants to associate with people like that so they don’t go to their games and don’t support their teams. In fact they root against them. People like to see arrogant people who feel entitled lose.
Its in the character of the institution, the students, the grads, and the alumni in general.
Look at how Tech posters refer to UGA alum and fans and Georgians in general. That alienates the populace from the Tech program.”
_______________________________________________
Precisely and for what ?
To run in here and tell us all how wrong we are about the perception of their school and its athletic department, both of which are perceived in nothing but the wrong light by those on these blogs, as you say, representing them with such superiority arrogance condescension superciliousness and snootiness. Again, for what possible purpose, as you say ? To alienate and set everyone else against them ?
Just who is at Georgie tek who keeps the Unsportsmanlike To Hell with Georgia like my Daddy used to do ?
You think that’s smart ?
If you are so smart and clever and intelligent why instead of running in here telling everyone how brilliant you are, don’t do something about a damn single one of these serious pit-falls Georgie tek suffers from ?
All you do is whine the AD is the fault.
The football coach is the fault.
The recruits are the fault.
The campus is the fault.
The rickety old stadium falling apart and unsafe is the fault.
The city is the fault.
The slums nearby are the fault.
The school flunking-out the entire football team is the fault.
The Police are the fault.
The hard school is the fault, judged hard because you flunk-out your whole football team year after year.
How much you savor beating UGA and happy even if it’s once in 12 seasons for heaven knows, you can’t really compete with big bad UGA.
FOS the lot of you, and you run in here to tell us everyone is all wrong. Just type a few words on the Internet and it all goes away, you surmise reading your posts.
How about getting off your duff and doing something about ANY of this ?
No.
Too aloof for that.
Too condescending.
Too arrogant, as you say.
Just tell everyone you are better than them; yeah, that’s the ticket; Morgan Fairchild –she’s my wife. I invented the Internet.
Dingbats.
gary forehand
October 31st, 2012
9:03 am
There is one simple answer to all of this differentiation. Georgia Tech dropped out of the SEC and with that decision it became a different school on all athletic fronts. I grew up a Tech fan and watched them maintain a competitive balance with all of the SEC schools. But once they left, they lost their elevated status.
Peter
October 31st, 2012
9:06 am
Personally I think Tech is going to get hammered this year by the bulldogs.
Typically I root for Tech…………… but the high school offense they run could not be more boring to watch.
So I do hope Tech get hammered, Paul Johnson gets fired, and Tech brings in a coach who will instill a “REAL” offense……… not a gimmick that can barely throw the ball.
GT_77
October 31st, 2012
9:13 am
Like Lamont said above, I too love to see the Jackets run onto Grant Field. They are my team even though I’ve always been in the minority growing up in South Ga. The problem is not CPJ’s offense, it is the kids have no pride in Where they are nor What they represent….
My old high school football coach used to say that if you can’t do your JOB on the field, then go join the F’NG BAND!!!!
old dog
October 31st, 2012
9:22 am
Amazing…..look at all the comments a bad football team will bring out……hopefully there is a solution somewhere.
old dog
October 31st, 2012
9:26 am
On a positive note, I understand the State Patrol finally stopped Benny Cunningham……
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
9:29 am
How about Reuben Houston ?
Is he still on the Most Wanted List ?
Or, did they finally stop him, too ?
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
9:33 am
Sugar Hill Dawg
October 30th, 2012
3:26 pm
I taught several Tech athletes in high school (Gwinnett County Public Schools) – I still don’t know how they got our of high school, much less into Tech (AND stayed eligible for four years). The “we don’t recruit the same guys as Clemson, UGA, Auburn, etc.” is a load of horse manure.
================================================
Give some names of the players you had in your class. What do you teach.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
9:33 am
Technically Correct
October 30th, 2012
3:19 pm
The vast majority of 4 and 5-star high school athletes couldn’t spell “Tech,” much less make it there as students. They likely have achieved 4 and 5-star status, because they allocated much more of their time and effort to athletics than to academics. These kids see themselves in the NFL one day, but, sadly, most will fail to reach that goal and most will have to fall back on whatever level of education they managed to salvage in college. They don’t see that reality as 17 and 18 year-olds. Tech has to compete for top caliber athletes within an ever-shrinking pool of true, quality student athletes. That’s tough, when the competition is the likes of Stanford, Notre Dame and other universities that value high academic standards. Folks, it is what it is. With rare exception, Tech will continue to fight with smaller, slower, less gifted players, but players, who, in the long run, will achieve great successes in life due to the educations they will receive at Tech.
___________________________
This is complete garbage. Please provide where you get your information that students who are 4-5 star recruits put more energy into sports than they do academics, which results in their higher “star” ranking.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
9:44 am
Flagboy…..Just LOOK at the SAT scores of the 4-5 stars compared to the 2-3 stars on average.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
9:47 am
FLAGBOY……………………………..Now the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has gone ahead and quantified that by comparing average SAT scores and grade-point averagesGPAs of athletes with the rest of the college’s student body. Not surprisingly, football and men’s basketball players came out on the bottom, and some averaged hundreds of points lower on SATs than their classmates.
The Journal-Constitution studied 54 public universities, “including the members of the six major Bowl Championship Series conferences and other schools whose teams finished the 2007-08 season ranked among the football or men’s basketball top 25.”
We all suspect that big-time student athletes sometimes aren’t the best and the brightest academically.
Some highlights:
Football players average 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates. Men’s basketball was 227 points lower.
University of Florida won the prize for biggest gap between football players and the student body, with players scoring 346 points lower than their peers.
Georgia Tech had the nation’s best average SAT score for football players, 1028 of a possible 1600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0. But because its student body is apparently very smart, Tech’s football players still scored 315 SAT points lower than their classmates.
UCLA, which has won more NCAA championships in all sports than any other school, had the biggest gap between the average SAT scores of athletes in all sports and its overall student body, at 247 points.
Some “universal truths,” according to the Journal-Constitution:
All 53 schools for which football SAT scores were available had at least an 88-point gap between team members’ average score and the average for the student body.
Schools with the highest admissions standards, such as Georgia Tech, the University of Virginia, the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of North Carolina, had the biggest gaps between the SAT averages for athletes and the overall student body.
Football players performed 115 points worse on the SAT than male athletes in other sports.
The differences between athletes’ and non-athletes’ SAT scores were less than half as big for women (73 points) as for men (170).
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University were special admits. . . At Georgia, for instance, 73.5 percent of athletes were special admits compared with 6.6 percent of the student body as a whole.
At a glance, here are the top 10 highest and lowest schools based on the average SAT scores of football players (out of a maximum 1600 score):
FOOTBALL SAT SCORES:
THE TOP 10
School, Average
Georgia Tech, 1028
Oregon State, 997
Michigan, 997
Virginia, 993
Purdue, 974
Indiana, 973
Hawaii, 968
California, 967
Colorado, 966
Iowa, 964
THE BOTTOM 10
School, Average
Oklahoma State, 878
Louisville, 878
Memphis, 890
Florida, 890
Texas Tech, 901
Arkansas, 910
Texas A&M, 911
Mississippi State, 911
Washington State, 916
Michigan State, 917
Tags: college athletics, SAT, sports, colleges
Engineer
October 31st, 2012
9:52 am
with Tech’s difficult admission rules and hard classes, they will never be able to sign all these “special admits” that play on teams like the university of football in athens. At tech, academics takes priority over football.
dawgfan75
October 31st, 2012
10:00 am
As the article implied, Tech fans are fair-weather. It is hard to run an athletic program when the fans refer to the team as ‘we’ and ‘us’ when they are winning and ‘them’ when the team is having a down year. Consistent middle-to-top tier programs do not have this problem.
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
10:03 am
Just in case everyone at Georgie tek can remember everything else, but somehow has no details on Reuben Houston. He is the football player at Georgie tek who with his baby on his lap was driving around ON-CAMPUS at Georgie tek with 94 lbs of drugs which he stated to the AJ-C in an interview that he was having the driver of the van take the said drugs to a place he knew of there, where they could sell the 94 lbs of drugs. That was June. December 6 months later, Georgie tek GRADUATED this individual. In-between Georgie tek played UGA in football. To our chagrin, we faced the thug on the field the entire game against us making plays against us.
Georgie tek LOST anyway.
The Judge did not order you to play Reuben Houston against us the whole entire game. You did that on your own.
Aloof and not GAS, you just played him against us the whole game. You don’t care what you do or how you are perceived, just as long as CHEATING or NOT, POOR SPORTSMANSHIP or NOT, you beat us by any and all means. Anything goes.
Management degree Georgie tek AWARDED Reuben Houston 6 months AFTER his interview by the AJ-C.
At UGA, he would have been thrown-out and would have NOT GRADUATED UGA in any circumstance.
He would have been EXPELLED.
Kicked-out of UGA.
Removed from the campus.
And, you wonder why you have drug issues ?
Really ?
You have NO DRUG RULES AND REGULATIONS.
NONE.
Hide everything.
You’ve got that for rules and regulations.
If it were not for the AJ-C every once in a while digging this stuff up on you, no one would ever know that the U.S. Marshals are still looking for Reuben Houston a fugitive from justice, still today who NEVER should have played the whole entire football game against us – and, NEVER should have graduated from Georgie tek.
This convicted criminal played the entire whole ballgame against us after his AJ-C interview.
Try defending him again ? Still on the Most Wanted List.
Anything you can do, just so that you can win in football against us.
How’s your VACATED ACC Title won after South Carolina beat Clempsum and UGA beat Georgie tek 2009, only to have you 2 compete for the ACC CHUMPionship ?
Who’s the top team in the ACC ?
Trick question.
There’s not 1.
You are so superior and we’re so inferior.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
10:03 am
fact check
October 30th, 2012
6:41 pm
flagboy-
“Many tech people believe that their choice of university/institute proves some sort of intellectual superiority. ”
I didn’t graduate from Tech, but it’s true. People who graduate from Tech do have “intellectual superiority.” If you don’t have it, you don’t graduate from there. That’s just the way it is – like it or not.
_____________________________________
So. . .fact check. . .let me get this straight. If you graduate from tech, you have intellectual superiority, right? question one: Intellectual superiority to whom? question two: If one attends GT, but never graduates (flunks out, never finishes, whatever) does that mean GT allowed someone in who didn’t have the ability to graduate? Why would that happen??
with a handle like “fact check”, I hope to actually see some facts rather than inane comments.
BravesJackets
October 31st, 2012
10:07 am
collegeballfan @ 4:05pm Oct 30, 2012: Thanks for posting those records. There was time in the mid 1950s when Tech actually lead the series in football. After 1960…Television begins to make it’s impact on our culture and big money begins to come into play. Ever since then, it’s been a different ballgame. Right around 1960 is when Georgia’s football dominance began over Georgia Tech.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
10:08 am
timeout, the guy posted there was a correlation between being a 4-5 star recruit and putting more time into athletics and less time into academics. I’m asking for evidence of that, which I’m pretty sure the original poster, nor yourself, will be able to provide.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:15 am
Flagboy……………..TECH runs kids out if they can’t handle the work…………………….
Did you graduate in 4 years? Most Georgia students don’t
11:12 am March 7, 2012, by Fran Jeffries
Did it take you longer than four years to graduate from a Georgia public college or university? If so, you’re in good company.
Only 1 in 4 — 24 percent – of entering freshmen in Georgia’s public four-year colleges get a degree within four years, according to a new database compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education that looks at nearly every U.S. college.
Okay, time for bragging rights, but not much bragging. The University of Georgia has by far the best completion rate in four years — 51.3 percent, compared to just 35.1 percent for Milledgeville’s Georgia College and State University, No. 2 on the list. Georgia Tech is third-highest at 32.9 percent.
Six years seems to be the ticket: Statewide, about 52 percent of students manage to complete a four-year degree within six years. Nearly 80 percent of students at both UGA and Georgia Tech are able to graduate in six years. It’s about 60 percent for Georgia College, according to the Chronicle’s database.
It’s just as bad at two-year colleges, according to the database: Among Georgia students enrolled in two-year colleges, only about one in four, or 25 percent, are completing their coursework, period, according to the data — still that’s better than the U.S. average of about 20 percent.
The new information comes just as a statewide initiative called Complete College Georgia is pushing state administrators to improve graduation rates by 2020.
The Chronicle database also shows that colleges with the highest graduation rates are often those with the fewest number of low-income students receiving Pell grants.
Only about 18 percent of UGA students and 16 percent of Georgia Tech students were Pell grant recipients, according to the database.
Many schools admit far more low-income students: about 40 percent of Georgia State University’s students received Pell grants, and 32 percent of Georgia Southern University students. At Albany State University, which had a four-year graduation rate of just 16.3 percent, nearly 72 percent received Pell grants, according to the Chronicle.
Here is the Chronicle’s list of graduation rates for 25 Georgia public colleges and universities.
What stumbling blocks do you see or did you experience while trying to graduate college in four years. Are there good, legitimate reasons for taking more than four years?
Elvis the falcon fan
October 31st, 2012
10:20 am
So Rad left town for more money……good for him. don’t really understand the backhanded insult about the color of his jacket. Now, as far as the 2 programs go….GT football will never be more than it is now…..The excuse of not having enough diversity in your academic majors is BS…didnt seem to hamper Bobby Ross or George O’leary…..
Time
October 31st, 2012
10:22 am
This is all too funny. You Tech people are like Obama still trying to blame Bush for his immense failures. All you losers ever respond with is some kind of “I’m smarter than you” babble. I’m sorry, but as others have pointed out, Tech isn’t THAT highly ranked of academic institution to warrant such arrogance. You ain’t Harvard or Yale, you’re not even Stanford or Duke. You’re not even the highest ranked academic institution in the city of Atlanta. You’re a 3rd tier “academic” institution that evidently isn’t even smart enough to figure out how to win while providing a top shelf education. UGA, ranked not far below Tech, does this. Duke, UNC, Miami (all ahead of you in conference) find ways to win, you Tech people find ways to whine.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:23 am
Flagboy…………..you don’t score great on the SAT without studying. Look at the Schools and the UGa 73% special admits and how many 4-5 star players do those BIGTIME Football schools get? If that doesn’t tell you that the Athlete is not as smart as an average student and that is because they don’t spend the time studying over practicing I don’t know what to tell you.
Thomas Brown
October 31st, 2012
10:24 am
Sugar Hill Dawg
October 30th, 2012
3:26 pm
That’s obvious, as you say, just looking at their graduation rate at Georgie tek, among the very worst in football in the entire United States of America colleges. SAT scores ? Excuse me, Paul Johnson recruits the average # 52 Scout.com recruiting ranking all the years he has been at Georgie tek. The recruits tell us over on AJ-C recruiting daily the same as Dan Radakovich said in his parting shots at Georgie tek in this article by Jeff Schultz.
Georgie tek has a high-school offense they would have to practice against as a Defensive Player, and thus Georgie tek NO LONGER can recruit ANY defensive players. They will NEVER see the high-school offense ever again. The forward pass was invented 75 years ago. Novel concept around here, when the Georgie tek smart quarterback falls behind in the games, they can’t even count to 4 to know not to throw the football into our stands for the students to catch.
And, so you languish with the # 64 # 60 and now 2012 the # 79 Defense in the nation.
Supposedly the advantage of the high school offense is that you KEEP the football, and thus the other team doesn’t get the football to be able to score.
Instead, no matter who is Paul Johnson’s Defensive Coordinator, it’s always the biggest problem he has that the other teams no matter how sorry the opponent all score more points on Georgie tek’s defense than your high-school offense can generate.
Thus, your 3-5 record with more record losses coming of Biblical Proportions 2012.
You might end up what ? 4-8 maybe ?
Outstanding. And, flunk-out your entire football team so you can run in here and brag about engineering degrees none of them ever get.
And, talk about how you don’t offer Rocks for Jocks. Yeah, you really do.
And, your Business School they cannot graduate from either.
Except for Reuben Houston.
GTBob
October 31st, 2012
10:25 am
Right around 1960 is when Georgia’s football dominance began over Georgia Tech.
It wasn’t just Georgia who started beating GT it was pretty much everyone. From the beginning of the Heisman era to the end of the Bobby Dodd era GT was winning 70% of its games. After the Dodd era to now we have won 55%. Bobby Dodd’s last 10 years weren’t great either so the numbers are even a little worse then that. College football changed dramatically around the 1960’s and GT didn’t really have any interest in changing with it.
Time
October 31st, 2012
10:27 am
This is all too funny. You Tech people are like Obama still trying to blame Bush for his immense failures. Most of the Techies respond with is some kind of “I’m smarter than you” babble. I’m sorry, but as others have pointed out, Tech isn’t THAT highly ranked of academic institution to warrant such arrogance. You ain’t Harvard or Yale, you’re not even Stanford or Duke. You’re not even the highest ranked academic institution in the city of Atlanta. You’re a 3rd tier “academic” institution running a division 2 football program. Within your own conference, better academic institutions (Duke, UNC, Wake, Miami) all find ways to win while having better academics. Tech finds ways to whine and be arrogant about it.
GTBob
October 31st, 2012
10:27 am
The excuse of not having enough diversity in your academic majors is BS…didnt seem to hamper Bobby Ross or George O’leary….
What? Neither had a great overall record and O’Leary openly complained about the difficulties.
The GT Degree....Accept No Substitute
October 31st, 2012
10:29 am
“Just who is at Georgie tek who keeps the Unsportsmanlike To Hell with Georgia like my Daddy used to do ?”
Uhhh….To the best of my knowledge, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US who proudly went to GT & studied & partied our @sses off while getting a hard-earned Degree that is quite distinguished in the business world from one obtained at the Mass Degree Mill of Athens.
Thomas Brown, you can be a freakin idiot and get a Degree from UGA…Know what I mean? I personally know absolute idiots who could barely get through Public High School in Georgia and 4 yrs later they walked out of UGA with a Degree. That does NOT happen at GT, and people who hire college graduates know it.
You have absolutely NO IDEA how difficult it is to get through Ma Tech, and that’s the faulty logic of your entire verbal assault on GT. I invite you to apply for admission at GT. And if you clear that hurdle, then picture yourself sitting in Freshman Chemistry and Calculus classes. You would be FLUSHED within the first 2 semesters. I saw guys like you get flushed all the time…..
You would then go home to mommy crying about how unbelievably hard the classes were and you weren’t prepared for that and you want to go back to high school….And voila…..Mommy then sends you to UGA. Ahhhhh…..You so warm & fuzzy again. You take puke breaks from your morning classes caused by partying over academics. It’s like high school all over again where you get As & Bs just by answering “present!” every day and getting your name correct on your tests.
That’s not arrogance. It’s UNDERSTANDING that there is a distinct difference in the quality of the degree earned at GT vs UGA, which is one reason there are fewer who earn degrees at GT. You darn right a bunch of athletes flunk out at GT. When I was there, about 70% of each entering freshman class never made it to graduation. It’s because the classes and subject material is HARD….Something you are not qualified to discuss until you sit through the classes & take the tests for 4-5 yrs to earn the GT Degree….
The GT Degree is the hardest Degree to earn in the University System of Georgia. That’s why it commands respect. Drive by Athens with your window down and they’ll throw a Degree to you. There’s absolutely no comparison and it’s pure folly to purport that there is…..
Academics vs Athletics? A winning or losing football team never put a dime in my pocket. My GT Engineering Degree allowed me to retire early and comfortably and provide for my family’s future. Guys like you live on blogs like this continually lobbing insults toward public institutions and people that you know nothing about because of your loneliness and insecurities….
Makes you feel so much better to put those GT nerds in their place, right?….While you ignorantly go through life without even the means to imagine how your life might have turned out if you had the balls and the skills to actually EARN a GT Degree.
Your posts remind me of a 4 yr old in daycare….”He took my Legos and I want em back! Make em him give em back! He not as good as me. He think he smart, but I smarter. I show him some day, you wait and see…..”
So we wait and wait and some day never comes…..What a sad & lonely little child hindered through life by the “Does NOT Play Well With Others” plastered on his forehead since the daycare Lego incident. Truly pathetic……
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:30 am
Elvis the falcon fan…………………by 2016 the college football landscape should even out some. At that time the new NCAA mandate of Higher GPA’s and SAT scores for Athletes will be in full effect. The freshmen in high school starting last year will be required to pass the New NCAA standards to be admitted to college on scholarship by 2016.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:34 am
The biggest issue with Athlete Students in Football & Basketball is most don’t care as much about getting a good education to have a better life after college. They mostly think they are going to make NBA or NFL money and will not have to get a good job. You hardly ever hear a 4-5 star player talk about the Professors he will study under or the Degree he really wants. You hear Playing Time, Coach, and getting to the Pros.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
10:39 am
Timeout, quit posting articles. post a link instead.
to point 1. If the kids can’t handle the work, they never should have been admitted, right? Or who made the mistake?
to point 2. You’re assuming 4-5 star recruits spend more time with athletics rather than studying. So. . i’m asking for proof. Again, I don’t see any. you posted something about 4-5 star recruits and something about special admits. . . again. . I don’t see the proof that 4-5 star recruits don’t study or whatever. put whatever statistics you want, until you show me something that specifically shows these 4-5 star recruits put more work into athletics than academics and this negatively affects their academic performance, my original comment that it was “complete garbage” stands becaues that’s why my comment was about. If you just want to say higher recruits are dumber than average students, fine, say that.
to the other comment about not being able to score great on the SAT without studying. . . . I’ll be there are quite a few people who will disagree with you. granted, this is a blog and people can say whatever they want, but I assure you, people score well on the SAT all the time without studying.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:43 am
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/paper-trail/2008/12/30/athletes-show-huge-gaps-in-sat-scores
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:44 am
http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2012/03/07/did-you-graduate-in-4-years-most-georgia-students-dont/
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:46 am
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/high-achievers-admitted-to-georgia-tech/nQSFY/
Students are not imagining it if they think it’s harder to get in to Georgia Tech.
Those admitted for next fall boast an average 3.9 GPA and a 1430 out of 1600 on the math and verbal SAT. By high school graduation these students would have taken an average of eight college-level courses, such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate.
About 14,700 students applied for one of the 2,400 spots for fall or the 250 spots for this summer. The admitted class represents 86 countries and 49 states. No one from Wyoming was admitted.
The University of Georgia is scheduled to announce admission decisions by April 1.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
10:46 am
Again, those links provide nothing in the way of the evidence for which I asked.
I will agree with you that athletes’ SAT scores are lower. But i was never arguing that.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
10:47 am
and i reread my post and my grammar/spelling is atrocious. apologies.
Skeptic
October 31st, 2012
10:50 am
flagboy–are you a Flagger?
Sonny DID lie, after all.
Ramblnwrek
October 31st, 2012
10:51 am
Its not so much about the move as about the timing. Football is the most emotionally driven sport and when you do anything that is slightly related to it during that time. People cannot help but link the two. I say it would have been not as big a deal if this had happened in December.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
October 31st, 2012
10:53 am
Flagboy…….I don’t think anybody has paid for a study of how much a high school athlete studies. It is a waist of money. The Proof in how much and how well said students study is in their Grade Point Averages and their ACT or SAT numbers and how many are SPECIAL ADMITS at colleges. If you don’t see those correlations then there is no way you will ever see it. 73% special admits for UGa athletes on the football teams tells you they don’t Study as much as they practice.